MOGADISHU, Somalia — Uneasy neighbors Sudan and South Sudan reached a deal on oil transit fees a day after a U.N. Security Council deadline passed for them to come to terms or face sanctions, it was announced Saturday.
South Sudan recently marked a year of independence from Sudan, but there has seemed little cause to celebrate. Earlier this year, the two countries tilted dangerously toward war in the wake of South Sudan’s decision in January to shut down oil production over the acrimonious dispute on the price Sudan charges to ship oil through its country.
The shutdown severely damaged the economies of both countries. As oil stopped flowing, consumer prices rocketed, shortages set in and currencies fell.
Although the two sides have agreed on a transit price, an intractable dispute over territory and their shared border was set aside until late September.
African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president, told reporters the countries would discuss what steps must be taken so oil companies could resume production.
Sudanese officials confirmed the deal but said it would not take effect until border security matters were settled. Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting antigovernment rebels in Sudanese territory, while South Sudan says its neighbor is guilty of supporting militias in its country.
Landlocked South Sudan confirmed in a statement that it had agreed to pay $9.48 a barrel to move its oil through Sudanese pipelines until the end of 2015. The South Sudanese government is hoping that an alternative pipeline will be built through Kenya or another neighboring country by then, giving it the option of bypassing Sudan.
The deal came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the South Sudanese capital, Juba, and urged the government there to make peace with its neighbor.
The U.S. has been supportive of South Sudan, the world’s newest country, which took possession of three-quarters of the Sudanese oil fields when it became independent last year. But with oil production suspended, and the slide toward war in April after South Sudan seized a Sudanese oil town, Washington has shown signs of impatience.
On Saturday, Clinton also met with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, urging his country to avoid a repeat of the widespread violence that followed the 2007 Kenyan presidential election.
Clinton also met the leader of Somalia’s transitional government, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, on Saturday and applauded strides made toward a democratic transition, expected Aug. 20, when a new president is to be elected by Somalia’s parliament.
In more than two decades since Somalia collapsed into civil war in 1991, there have been repeated failed efforts to create a permanent government as piracy flourished and the Shabab, an Islamic militant group, seized control.
The Shabab abandoned the capital, Mogadishu, just under a year ago, and has lost more territory since.
